“That Dáil Éireann:
notes that:
—the social and affordable housing crisis has now reached the level of an emergency;

—growing numbers of people do not have access to affordable, secure and safe homes;

—8,000 people, including 3,000 children, are being forces to live in emergency accommodation;

—90,000 households are on council waiting lists, many waiting for more than 10 years for an allocation;

—thousands of people are struggling with high rents, insecurity of tenure and poor standards in the private rental sector;

—thousands more are locked out of the private purchase market by high prices driven up by land speculation;

—the failure to resolve the mortgage distress crisis and keep people in their family home or private rented accommodation continues to push more people into homelessness;

—Rebuilding Ireland does not provide for an adequate level of investment in social or affordable housing;

—Rebuilding Ireland continues to over rely on the private sector to meet social and affordable housing need; and

—Rebuilding Ireland, unless substantially amended, will not address the underlying causes of the housing and homeless crisis; and

calls on the Government to:
—honour the proposal from the Report of the Committee on Housing and Homelessness to increase the stock of social houses owned by local authorities and approved housing;

—introduce a new affordable housing programme in 2018 to enable middle income households to access private rental and private purchase housing at affordable prices;

—support these housing programmes with a capital investment commitment substantially greater than that outlined in Rebuilding Ireland;

—introduce new measures to stop the flow of people into homelessness by providing greater protections for private renters and greater supports for those in long term mortgage distress; and
—give a clear commitment that no family with children will be left in emergency accommodation for more than six months and that no person will be forced to sleep rough due to lack of safe and appropriate emergency accommodation.”